The following item appeared in an 1874 edition of the
Papillion
Times (Nebraska):

"J. B. Silvis - he who meanders up and down the
U.P. [Union Pacific] in his palatial photograph car, seeking the shadows
of us poor mortals...If we can't induce you to settle among us, we are
glad...we can occasionally see your smiling countenance and hear your hearty
laugh."1

John B. Silvis, obviously well liked by his public, was
never one to remain for long in one place. Born with a wanderlust that
first took him to California during the Gold Rush, he moved from one mining
camp to another. Then, unable to live the rigorous life of a miner, he
took up photography and traveled the breadth of the West as proprietor
of the U.P.R.R. Photograph Car. In his travels he saw and recorded our
great national experience, the settling of the American West.

John B. Silvis was born in June 1830,2the
second of the eight children of Henry and Catharine (née Eyster)
Silvis.3
He grew up in Lockhaven,4
Pennsylvania, a canal town named for its location on the Susquehanna River
West Branch of the Pennsylvania State Canal system. Views of passing canal
boats and log rafts deeply influenced his life and he dreamed of far off
places. His dreams were fulfilled when news reached the East telling of
the fabulous wealth to be found in the goldfields of California. That spring
of 1849, at the age of 18, he began the journey of a lifetime by traveling
overland to California.5

Weaver Creek

French Town

Silvis' early California experiences were unrewarding.
Unsuccessful in the mines, "in company with another young man from Bradford
county [Pennsylvania], he started a trading post on Weaver
Creek [a branch of the Trinity River] and bought eight mules for transporting
merchandise."6
On their second trip from Chester City7
to the trading post, the mules either strayed or were stolen, representing
a loss of $1,300 to him.8
Accepting his losses, he moved into Butte County.9
He tried his hand again at mining, only to be "broken up several times"
and to suffer with fever and ague for sixteen months.10
Not being "disposed to hire out...[for] five dollars a day," Silvis started
farming "two quarter sections of land in a [Concow] valley about five miles
from French Town, right in the neighborhood
of the Indians." The Indians he reported "can be hired for little and be
paid in old clothes."11
He sold the land after one season,12
perhaps because the Indians upon whom he had relied upon for labor began
to die from cholera.13
Silvis then made another unsuccessful attempt to strike it rich mining14
before he moved to Chico township in the northern Sacramento Valley. There
he took up ranching. Initially, he began raising sheep but later switched
to cattle and hogs. Between 1856-1860, tax records15
show he was able to attain some degree of prosperity. He married Virginia
Ann Carpenter on June 28, 1856 in Oroville.16
Still he remained a restless spirit at heart, and in 1861 they moved to
Diamondville,17
closer to the mining activities.

Grand Hotel, Humboldt Wells, Nevada

In the early 1860s, Nevada became the new focus of mining
activity. Investing a considerable portion of his personal wealth, $1,500,
Silvis bought an interest in several mining claims located in the Echo
Mining District in Humboldt (now Pershing) County.18
Ultimately, these claims proved worthless, and he faced having to start
over. The Reese River area (Lander county, Nevada) was just beginning to
boom so in September 1863 Silvis moved to Canyon City in the Big Creek
mining district, about 12 miles south of Austin, Nevada.19
Canyon City wasn't much, containing "about fifty 'permanent' residents,
one hotel, one store, two restaurants, three saloons, one meat market,
a Notary Public and Recorder's office, telegraph office, and twelve houses
and cabins."20
There, in partnership with Daniel Jewett, he became a storekeeper.21
Silvis continued to maintain his interest in mining activities. With two
other partners, he incorporated the Venus Gold and Silver Mining Company
with capital stock of $140,000.22
However, the company collapsed the next year along with the rest of the
Big Creek mining district. Little did the luckless Silvis know this same
area would become valuable for its antimony deposits in 1891.23

Silvis seems to have salvaged something from the district's
collapse. He sold his store24
and became a saloonkeeper in partnership with Fred C. Chase.25
They moved their business to Garden Ranch, 375 acres of grass or farming
land about five miles southwest of Austin, Nevada. Isolated and without
what she felt were the "necessaries of life," Silvis' wife, Virginia, was
not happy there. She had already given birth to four children of whom only
a son, Charles Henry (born December 1859), survived. In the spring of 1864,
she gave birth to a daughter, Eva Lilley. That summer Silvis sold out to
his partner, Fred Chase.26
What happened next is lost in the claims and counter-claims of a divorce
action. Virginia claimed she was abandoned and left without support when
she became ill while on route to California. Silvis denied it. Virginia
then moved to Unionville, Nevada where she filed for divorce in April 1865.
On September 6, 1865 the judge granted her a divorce and custody of her
children.27

The next two years of Silvis' life are a bit of a mystery.
A biography of Silvis in the History of the State of Nebraska (published
in 1882) states "In 1859 he began the study of his profession [photography],
in consequence of injuries received that incapacitated him from active
service in the mines."28
However, there is no other evidence to suggest he was interested in photography
prior to his divorce. The author has a photograph of a Wyoming stage station,
on the reverse of which is imprinted "Silvis, Photographer...Austin, Nev."
Austin had at least two photographic galleries at this time, Krause's Pioneer
Gallery and one operated by a former Philadelphian, Leo Schumacher.29
Silvis may have learned the craft at either gallery, but neither tax records
nor newspaper accounts show that he operated a business there. Another
possibility is that he traveled to the East, where he studied photography,
and that he was in the process of returning to Austin when he made the
stage station photograph. In any case, in 1867 he went to Salt Lake City,
perhaps because, at that time, it was the closest source of photographic
supplies. There he met Charles William Carter, who had previously been
an employee of the photographic firm of Savage & Ottinger.30
That June, Carter had started his own business, Carter's View Emporium,
where he sold photographs of the Overland Route depicting Mormon immigration.
He also offered to photograph "stores and residences ... on reasonable
terms."31
In December 1867 Carter and Silvis formed a partnership.32
They took over the Sutterley Brothers Photographic Gallery on East Temple
Street, next door to the Wells, Fargo & Co. stage office.33

Stage Ranch, 37 miles southwest of Byran, Wyoming

In 1866 Wells, Fargo & Co. put together a unified
Overland Mail Company with the "Grand Consolidation" of a number of independent
stage companies. Two years later their business was threatened by the imminent
juncture of the Union Pacific and Central Pacific Railroads. A revolution
was about to take place: a nation that had taken months to cross would
soon be crossed in a matter of days. William F. Horspool, who managed several
Utah stage stations for Wells, Fargo & Co., probably recognized that
an era was about to end. He commissioned Carter & Silvis to photograph
his stage stations.34
Those photographs remain as a rare record of what overland staging was
like. Within a year the Pacific Railroad was completed and overland stages
ran no more.

Before the two railroads were joined with the driving of Golden
Spike at Promontory, Utah on May 10th, 1869, the Carter & Silvis partnership
dissolved. Their partnership had lasted less than a year.35
Carter kept the photographic gallery and became a well-recognized photographer
of Utah and the Mormons.36
Working out of a tent, Silvis did portrait photography along the newly constructed
Pacific Railroad right-of-way.37
While Silvis was not present at the ceremony that completed the last link in
the transcontinental railroad, he arrived at Promontory
shortly afterwards. The empty sagebrush plain of a few months earlier was now
transformed by track and canvas
into, reportedly, one of the wickedest places on earth.38
However, the last "Hell-on-Wheels" town created by the Pacific Railroad construction
was short lived. Within a few months, the terminus of the two railroads was
relocated to Ogden, and the sagebrush reclaimed the town of Promontory.

Silvis spent the rest of the summer doing portrait photography
along the Union Pacific right-of-way. At the same time, William H. Jackson
was traveling between Cheyenne and Promontory, taking views for his Omaha-based
photography business. Jackson met a number of photographers along the Union
Pacific line, including Andrew J. Russell and Charles R. Savage. In September
at Wasatch, Utah, Jackson and Silvis met. The brevity of Jackson's entry
in his journal suggests they already knew each other, as Jackson usually
elaborated when he made the acquaintance of a new photographer. In this
case, all Jackson wrote was, "Was in Silvis' tent a good deal getting him
straightened out."39
Silvis was having a problem with his photographic chemicals.

Photography, using the wet-plate process, was a tricky
business, and conditions in the West made it even more so. Mineral-laden
water rendered chemicals unusable. Wind blown dust stuck to the collodion
emulsified plate. Cinders showering down from passing locomotives burned
holes in the darkroom tent. Supplies of even the most basic chemicals needed
for photography were difficult to obtain, and when they were found, the
price was dear. Hard cash was scarce among those working along the rail
line: after the saloonkeepers, gamblers, and dance hall girls received
their share, there was little left for a photographer. Frequently, it was
necessary to barter photographs for food or transportation to some other
location along the line.40
Given these circumstances, it is easy to understand why Silvis sought a
less rigorous way to practice his profession.

The circumstances that brought Silvis, a roving photograph
studio in a railroad car, and the Union Pacific Railroad together are not
known. Silvis' contact with the Union Pacific surely began when he was
photographing along their lines during the summer of 1869. His association
with the railroad may also date from this time. The photograph car with
the portrait
studio, developing and printing facilities, and sales office
all in one mobile unit, was an idea whose time had come. Photography has
a long history of itinerant practitioners who earned their living by moving
from town to town. In the days when photographic plates were developed
shortly after exposure, a portable darkroom or photo wagon gave the photographer
mobility. Horse-drawn studios had been in use from the daguerreian days
of photography.

However, along the transcontinental railroad, the distances
were too great and the population too sparse for an itinerant photographer
with a horse-drawn photo wagon to make a living. On the other hand, the
railroad compensated with speed and mobility. The photographers of the
Central and Union Pacific construction, Alfred A. Hart and Andrew J. Russell,
were quick to put their photo wagons on flat cars. However, neither photographer
took his photo wagon to the ceremony at Promontory. Instead, each operated
out of the railroad car that brought him. Still, these men returned to
their home-based studios to make prints and conduct sales. It remained
for Silvis, or perhaps someone else in the Union Pacific, to put all the
elements together, and the U.P.R.R. Photograph Car was born.

UPRR Photograph Car imprint

The U.P.R.R. Photograph Car was
not much more than a standard Union Pacific caboose fitted with living
quarters, a darkroom, and a portrait
studio illuminated by a skylight cut
into the roof. The skylight also made it possible to print photographs
during inclement weather. Elaborately painted on the exterior, signs on
its sides declaring "STEREOSCOPIC & LANDSCAPE VIEWS of NOTABLE POINTS
on LINE of PACIFIC R.R. ALWAYS on HAND." Trophy horns of elk and bighorn
sheep, and sometimes the American flag, decorated the roof. While the car
was stationary, Silvis hung examples of his work on the outside. On one
occasion, in mourning for slain President James A. Garfield, the Photograph
Car was draped with black bunting.41

Surviving Union Pacific records (held by the Nebraska
State Historical Society, Lincoln) do not shed any light on Silvis' arrangement
with the company. However, it may have been similar to the one F. Jay Haynes
enjoyed with the Northern Pacific. Haynes, the "Official Photographer"
to the Northern Pacific (a title which he used prominently in his business),
was not a salaried employee of the N.P. Instead, he owned his own photograph
car, which the N.P.42
moved on their tracks at a favorable mileage fee. This arrangement was
"contingent on [Haynes]...furnishing the Passenger department, free of
charge, with views...for illustrating purposes, of new station buildings,
passenger trains in motion, views of towns, views of track, river views
along the track, views of wheat fields, views of scenery, and such other
pictures as [you]...may be able to make that will be suitable for illustrating
purposes."43
The Northern Pacific used the photographs it received from Haynes for promotional
purposes, particularly in the sale of the company's lands. Assuming the
Union Pacific had a similar agreement with Silvis, the Union Pacific probably
used his views for similar promotions.

The Union Pacific needed to sell some of the approximately
11.3 million acres of the land it had received as a benefit of constructing
the railroad. After the driving of the Golden Spike at Promontory, the
company was left in a ruinous financial condition as a result of the excesses
of its construction. Built through 1,100 miles of sparsely settled territory,
there were few commercial markets, other than the Salt Lake Valley, to
support it. Anticipated trade with the Orient was lost with the opening
of the Suez Canal (November 1869). Much of the California commerce continued
to go by sea because it remained cheaper. Only by developing the natural
resources along its right-of-way and promoting immigration to populate
the West, could the Union Pacific hope to find its financial salvation.

Among the many railroads that received generous land grants,
the competition to sell land was fierce. During the 1870s the railroads
distributed numerous illustrated (photograph-based lithographs) pamphlets,
circulars and magazines, many in foreign languages. The Union Pacific land
advertisements appeared in over two thousand publications. The railroads
also sent agents to Europe. Armed with stereopticon viewers, these agents
gave free, illustrated lectures to attract immigrants to the cheap land
available in the American West.44
As a result of this strategy, tremendous changes took place, forever altering
the face of the West. The railroads' lands became farms, and the West was
settled. Silvis, with the U.P.R.R. Photograph Car, was fortunate enough
to be there to record the transformation.

The Platte Valley Independent, Nov. 30, 1872

By the fall of 1870 all arrangements were made, and Silvis
and the U.P.R.R. Photograph Car were in business, traveling the Union Pacific
tracks.45
As proprietor of the U.P.R.R. Photograph Car, Silvis moved from locale
to locale, taking portraits of the local inhabitants. The Photograph Car
rolled into a town several times each year, usually advertising
several weeks in advance of its arrival. Years later, Mrs. Ida Breternizt
recalled, "The great thing we looked forward to...was the photograph car.
It...stood on the side tracks where we went to have our pictures taken...I
remember so well how we talked of it and planned what we would wear."46
If F. Jay Haynes was any example, business was sometimes brisk; $100 or
more could be earned in a single day.47
From advertisements on the side of the Photograph Car, it is known that
Silvis' portrait work included ferrotypes (tintypes), gems and porcelains.48
However, he primarily used the wet-plate/albumen print process to make
photographs. The carte-de-visite, a paper image glued on a small 2 1/2"
x 4 1/4" card, was popular at this time. Most of the portraits taken by
Silvis, identified by the Photograph Car imprint on the reverse, are of
this type.

Winnemucca Family, Nevada

Wasatch, Utah

Artesian Well, Rock Springs, Wyoming

Coal Tipple, Carbon, WyomingPhoto credit: Union Pacific Railroad.

In addition to taking portrait photographs, Silvis sold
stereoscopic and other landscape views. Stereographs were at the height
of their popularity, and most homes had a stereopticon viewer in their
parlor. Silvis advertised that he stocked a large selection of views "embracing...all
the most interesting scenes of Nebraska, Colorado, Utah, California, Oregon
&c."49
Whether he sold only his own photographs or also vended those of others
is a matter of conjecture. However, he had access to the places he advertised
(except perhaps Oregon) by traveling on the U.P. tracks or by making occasional
excursions on the Central Pacific, Utah
Central, or Denver Pacific Railroads. Traveling up and down the railroad
line several times a year, Silvis had splendid opportunities to photograph
the natural wonders, as well as the impact upon the land made by the railroad
and the population influx it brought. Railroad facilities (sidings,
water
towers, roundhouses, etc.) were the potential sites for the development
of new towns. Mineral discoveries, such as coal, grew into mines and tipples.
As a whole, Silvis' views illustrate the changes that took place in the
West during the post-Civil War era.

Traveling the Union Pacific's tracks from one end to the
other was not without excitement, nor hazard. The Photograph Car was fitted
with the comforts of home, and Silvis traveled in all seasons, witnessing
blizzards and flash floods. On occasion, his second wife, Alice Victoria
(née Allen), whom he married in Chicago on June 16, 1873,50
accompanied him.51
One exciting incident occurred in December 1878. The residents of Kearny,
Nebraska were enraged over the lynching of Luther Mitchell and Ami Ketchum
by I. P. (Print) Olive for the murder of Olive's brother, Robert. Such
swift justice was not uncommon. However, the possible complicity of the
sheriff in the lynching and the fact that the victims' bodies were burned
incensed the townspeople. Silvis made the most of the excitement by selling
"Views of the Hanging of Mitchell and Ketchum" and a photographic mosaic
of the "Olive Gang."52

Robbery

Silvis was not immune from violence either. One August
night in 1881, while in Evanston, Wyoming he was the intended victim of
a potentially deadly robbery attempt.53
Awakened by the sound of a plank being placed against the outside of the
Photograph Car, Silvis slipped from his bed and got his pistol. Observing
an intruder climbing through an open window, Silvis fired, striking him
on the shoulder. The burglar and his partner fled with Silvis in pursuit,
firing his revolver, until the pain of his bare feet on the rocks compelled
him to stop. Returning to the car, he found a heavy iron bar on the floor.
The intruder obviously intended to dispatch him with it.

At the end of 1882 Silvis retired from the Photograph
Car and from photography. Business was dwindling because of the increased
competition from local photographers who resided in some of the more thriving
towns along the track. Grand Island, Nebraska, for example, had three commercial
photographers by this time.54
He may also have been influenced by the fact his wife had just given birth
to a daughter, Hazel.55
However, even after Silvis' retirement the U.P.R.R. Photograph Car continued
to operate on Union Pacific tracks. The business arrangements are unknown,
but Charles Tate became the proprietor of the Photograph Car. In 1883,
he took it to Hailey, Idaho Territory, on a newly completed portion of
the Union Pacific's subsidiary, the Oregon Short Line.56
The purpose of the trip was to take photographs of the scenery and objects
of interest for a new Union Pacific travel guide. Tate also took portraits
and made stereographs in route. Evidently Tate's proprietorship was short
lived as he did not have his own stereograph cards imprinted. Instead he
mounted his images on Silvis' remaining unused stock of cards.57
After Tate, W.A. Bradley operated the Photograph Car. By this time, the
tracks of the Utah & Northern, another U.P. subsidiary, had been laid
to Butte, Montana Territory, and Bradley included it on his route. He continued
to use the Photograph Car until at least 1889.58

Before the U.P.R.R. Photograph Car ceased operating, it
had inspired a number of imitations. An article in the November 1884 issue
of Photographic Times and American Photographer, entitled "A Railway
Studio," offered extensive design details for a photograph car.59
The new generation of photograph cars were a vast improvement over Silvis'
caboose. The new photograph cars were modified passenger cars with large
glass areas for better studio lighting. Some cars even had "carefully fitted
darkrooms for the development of negatives," a display gallery, and living
quarters offering "every convenience -- excepting a cook."60
The Haynes Palace Studio Car, operated on the Northern Pacific tracks from
1885 to 1905 by F. Jay Haynes, was just such a photograph car. Haynes purchased
a Pullman business car from the N.P. and had it converted to his specifications.61
As the years passed, Haynes turned over the operation of his photograph
car to his employees. Several photograph cars operated from time to time
on the southern transcontinental routes. In 1891 the Boston Railroad Photo
Car made a tour through the Southwest to California. Its staff of four
cameramen claimed to have taken 13,000 negatives in Albuquerque (NM), 7,000
in Las Vegas (NM), and 3,000 in Flagstaff (AZ).62
While these figures are probably inflated, they do indicate there was considerable
photographic business available to photograph car operators in that sparsely
settled country. Perhaps one of the last photograph cars in the West was
the Sunset Photograph Car. Operated by the Southern Pacific Railroad in
the early 1900s the car was used to provide photographs for Sunset Magazine,
an S.P. publication devoted to promoting the West.63
This is just what the U.P.R.R. Photograph Car and J.B. Silvis had done
three decades earlier.

In retirement Silvis lived on his farm, Sunny Side, at
Elkhorn (Station), Nebraska. Silvis had begun acquiring property there
in 1873, and by the time he retired, he owned three farms totaling over
500 acres. Each of these properties were improved and under cultivation.
One farm was said to have the best house in western Douglas County in addition
to "a large orchard of bearing trees, and a large grove of forest and ornamental
trees."64
Silvis also purchased a thoroughbred stallion and an imported shorthorn
bull named Duke of Oxford for breeding. An active promoter of his community,
he was a charter member of the Waterloo Immigration and Improvement Association.65
By the late 1880s Silvis had either sold or leased his farms and resided
part-time in Omaha.66
Finally, in 1892 Silvis moved to a farm near Tallahassee, Florida (today
it is a portion of the Florida A&M University campus) where he lived
until his death on July 1, 1900.67

When John B. Silvis left Pennsylvania to join the California
Gold Rush the American West was largely uninhabited, except by the Native
American Indians. By the time of his death, some fifty years later, an
American frontier could no longer be said to exist.68
In between, a remarkable transformation took place; a series of events
that resulted in the settling of the West. As a miner, saloonkeeper, rancher,
and farmer, Silvis was very much a participant in these events. As a photographer,
he was an observer and recorder of them. As proprietor of the U.P.R.R.
Photograph Car, he was a wanderer who roamed the West on the track of the
Union Pacific Railroad. A wanderer seems to be what he enjoyed being the
most.

ADDENDUM

Today, photographs by J. B. Silvis are quite rare. The
largest public holdings, consisting of about a dozen views, are at the
Denver
Public Library. Two of these views may be
seen on the library’s website.
The
Union
Pacific Railroad Museum, where one would expect to find a number of
views, has but a single original image. However, they do have several copy
photographs. The George Eastman House and the Museum of New Mexico also
have single original images. The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints’
Church Archives has three copy photographs of Wells, Fargo & Co. stage
stations taken by Carter & Silvis. They also hold a number of original
negatives taken by C. W. Carter. Perhaps some are the work of Silvis. The
Nebraska State Historical Society has a copy photograph of the "Olive Gang."
Undoubtedly there are more photographs by J. B. Silvis to be located, lost
among the numerous collections filed only by category rather than photographer.

2Twelfth Census
of the United States (1900), State of Florida, Leon County, Precinct
No. 14, E.D. 88, Sheet 16, Line 15. Taken on June 22, 1900, Silvis is listed
as age 69. In the 1850 Census, taken in late September or early October,
Silvis is 20. The 1860 Census, taken July 7th, lists Silvis (under the
name Silvey) as being 30. In the 1880 Census, taken June 15th, Silvis is
listed as age 50. No birth record for Silvis has been located, nor has
the location of his birth been identified. The town in which he claimed
to have been born, Lockhaven, PA, was not founded until three years after
his birth. The 1830 US Census lists a Henry Silvis family in Turbut Township,
North Unberland County, PA. Information in this census is limited, but
the family profile matches what the Silvis family would have been like
at that time.

3 Henry Silvis was
born in Reading, PA on November 9, 1798. He died in Lockhaven, PA on December
31, 1879. He was a tanner, butcher, farmer and lumberman by trade.
Clinton
Democrat, 1 Jan. 1880.

Catharine (née Eyster) Silvis was born in Rockland, Venango Co.,
PA on January 1, 1803. The exact year is uncertain as she was reported
to be between 92 and 97 at the time of her death on September 18, 1900.
Clinton
Republican, 29 Sept. 1900.

4 Lockhaven was laid
out by town founder Jeremiah Church in 1833. Its name is derived from its
location by a "lock" of the Susquehanna River West Branch Canal and wing
dam, which provided a rest-"haven" for log rafts. It became the county
seat when Clinton County was formed in 1839. The Henry Silvis' had one
of the earliest homes in town and may have pre-dated the town's founding.

5 The statement of
overland travel to California is taken from Silvis' questionable (see comments
in endnote 28) biography in History of the State of Nebraska (816).
Events described in Silvis' August 28, 1850 letter from Chester City, CA
(Clinton Democrat, 19 Nov. 1850) place him in California too early
to have been a part of the 1850 overland migration. The author has examined
numerous 1849 overland journals, including C.W. Haskins' The Argonauts
of California, but did not find Silvis listed. Hovever, even by the
best estimates, the names of only about a quarter of the California 49ers
are known. It is possible that Silvis went by sea, including Panama, but,
again, his name does not appear on any published list.

6Clinton Democrat,
19 Nov. 1850. Silvis' partner may have been Matthew Stuart, one of the
founders of Weaverville.

7 Erwin Gudde in
California
Gold Camps (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1975) does not
list Chester City. Judging by Silvis’ description Chester City is probably
a phonetic spelling of Shasta City.

8 John Carr in
Pioneer
Days in California (Eureka: Times Publishing Co., 1891) reported that
mules were quite scarce in the Trinity area, costing as much as $300 apiece,
and were stolen frequently. The punishment for stealing a mule could be
quite severe, including public whipping, and, in one case, the thieves
were "shot and killed...then scalped and the hair pieces nailed to the
corral gateposts as a warning to others." (99-120).

It is appropriate to comment here on the anti-Gold Rush vies of the
Clinton
Democrat. The newspaper was very much opposed to the California venture.
Most of its comments reflected on the lawlessness there, the high price
of goods, and illness (cholera) found on the trail and in California. The
newspaper even took to reporting several (false?) gold strikes in Pennsylvania
to dampen the enthusiasm. Silvis’ first letter, written 29 August 1850
and published 19 November 1850 supported the paper’s views. It concludes,
"I advise my friends to stay home and my enemies to come to California."
Two years latter the Clinton Democrat abruptly reversed its position
and started writing more positive things about California. The reason for
this is not entirely clear, however, about this time John Bigler was elected
governor of California. The Clinton Democrat, a highly political
newspaper, was supporting William Bigler, John’s brother, for governor
of Pennsylvania at this time.

9Seventh United
State Census (1850), Butte County, California, page 24(83), line 21.
The census was taken in late September or early October. John Silvis, age
20, miner, is listed as sharing a cabin with J.B. Nelson of Indiana, age
20, trader, and Tron Priceau of France, age 24, miner.

11 Ibid. As reprehensible
as Silvis' behavior may seem, paying California Indians with food and clothing
for their labor was common among the Anglo-whites of California. The practice
had its roots in "the system of Indian peonage which had existed on the
ranchos of Hispanic California." (Rawls, 30). Indian labor was also common
in the mines during the first year after the discovery of gold. A number
of early California pioneers became wealthy by employing Indians. However,
Indian laborers were soon driven from the mines by newly arriving whites
who viewed such cheap labor, including slaves and Chinese, as an unfair
advantage to the employer. Also, the experiences of the new arrivals with
the Indians back home differed sharply from the Hispanic California system.
James J. Rawls, "Gold Diggers: Indian Miners in the California Gold Rush,"
California
Historical Quarterly, 55 (Spring, 1976): 28-45.

According to the Clinton Democrat, 20 April 1852, Silvis’ partner
in the enterprise was a "Dr. Thompson of Iowa."

13 David Wooster,
The
Gold Rush: Letters of David Wooster from California to the Adrian Michigan,
Expositor 1850-1855 (Mount Pleasant, The Cumming Press, 1972), 69.

14Weekly Butte
Record, 18 July 1856. "The claim of John Silvis & Co., yielded
last week, with seven men, three days washing, $810."

15Assessment
Rolls, Chico Township, Butte County, Meriman Library; California State
University at Chico. Silvis' personal property total for 1857 was $1,750;
for 1858, $1,330; for 1859, $2,046 and for 1860* (under the name J.B. Silvey),
$3,000. Silvis' does not appear to have owned any real estate at this time.
*Eighth United State Census (1860), Chico Township, Butte County,
California, page 567, line 11

16Silvis v.
Silvis, Civil Court Case 76, Humboldt County Clerk, Winnemucca, NV.
Virginia Ann Carpenter was born November 1838 in Mississippi, the daughter
of Dangerfield and Ellen (née Randall) Carpenter. The Carpenter
family moved to California, arriving in San Francisco aboard the Winfield
Scott, June 15, 1852.* The Carpenters were ranching in Chico Township
by 1854. * Louis J. Rassmussen, San Francisco Ship Passenger Lists (Colma:
San Francisco Historic Records, 1967), 3:214.

17 According to
Gudde (96) Diamondville was northeast of Chico on Butte Creek. Founded
in 1857, and originally named Goatville, it was renamed in honor of James
Diamond, a miner.

25Internal
Revenue Assessment...Nevada, Annual List, 1864: 18. Silvis and Chase
are listed as "Retail Dealers in Liquor." This represents a change in Silvis
as he had been a member of the Lockhaven Temperance Society. Clinton
Democrat, 2 Feb. 1849.

27Silvis v.
Silvis. Virginia was also given the use of her maiden name. On December
11, 1865, Virginia married William R. Usher** of Unionville. The next year
they moved to Silver City, Idaho Territory, where they lived for five years.
After moving to Utah, then Nevada, in 1880, they settled in Eagle Valley,
Oregon. There they platted and founded the town of Richland. * Of Virginia's
six children only Charles Henry survived to adulthood. He never married***
and lived with his mother until her death in 1924. Charles died in Baker,
Oregon in 1936. *Illustrated History of Baker, Grant, Malheur
and Harvey Counties...State of Oregon (Western Historical Publishing
Company, 1902), 299.

** It is a matter of speculation, but Virginia may have known Usher
earlier. The Eighth United State Census (1860) shows a Wm. Usher, Saloon
Keeper, living in Kinshaw Township, Butte County. Tax records show Virginia’s
father, Dangerfield Carpenter, residing there in 1861.

*** I admit to taking some liberties with this statement. On 15 October
1829, Henry, at age 71, married Bee Alice Ralston, 50, of Whitney, Oregon
in Baker, Oregon. (Marriage Certificate No. 6900, Certification of Vital
Records, Oregon Health Division) At Henry Silvis’ death she is not listed
as having survived him. However, I have not been able to locate a death
certificate for her, nor any divorce records.

28History of
the State of Nebraska (Chicago: The Western Historical Company, 1882)
1:816. The History of the State of Nebraska is one of those histories
popular in the late 19th and early 20th centuries in which the subscribers
could include their own biographies. Silvis' biography is full of exaggerations,
inaccuracies, and falsehoods, the most glaring of which is the statement
claiming he served in "Company F, Fifteenth Pennsylvania Cavalry" during
the Civil War. No record of any such service can be found in the files
of the National Archives nor does Silvis' name appear on any unit roster.
Also, the Special Schedule of Surviving Soldiers, Sailors, and Marines,
and Widows, etc. (gathered as part of the Eleventh United States Census,
1890) and Nebraska's Enumeration of Soldiers, Sailors and Marines of
the War of 1812, the Mexican War and the War of the Rebellion, Residing
in Nebraska June 1st, 1887 indicate that Silvis was a major in the
1st California Cavalry, but no record of this service can be found.

35Application
for Licenses. Carter applied for an annual business license under his
own name in March 1869. Between February 13 and August 5, 1868 Carter &
Silvis was listed under "Photograph Galleries" in the Salt Lake Telegraph.
Although their partnership may have dissolved at this time, discontinuation
of the advertisement appears to have been more a change in format of the
newspaper than anything else.

36 The History
Department of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in Salt Lake
City, UT houses approximately one thousand original glass negatives by
Carter. Many were taken about the time of the Carter & Silvis partnership;
perhaps some were taken by Silvis himself.

37Silvis'
whereabouts during late 1868 and early 1869 are not entirely clear. The
Union Pacific Museum at Omaha Nebraska has a copy photograph, X186, which
shows Federal Railroad Commissioners Clements and Blinkendoffer sitting
on the pilot of the locomotive "Falcon," covered with a buffalo robe, on
an inspection trip. The photographer is credited as being "Silvis of Reno."
The photograph was taken at Argenta, Nevada, February 9, 1896.

There have been some references to Silvis being a member
of a "photographic corp" headed by A. J. Russell. Gerald Best in Iron
Horses to Promontory (San Marino: Golden West Books, 1969, page 144)
says, "After Andrew J. Russell and his assistant S.J. Sedgewick had returned
to New York in 1869, another member of Russell's group, J.B. Silvis, made
a number of trips over the Union Pacific [in the Union Pacific photograph
car]." However Best cites no reference for this statement. William D. Patterson
in "Westward by Rail with Professor Sedwick: A Lantern Slide Journey of
1873." (Historical Society of Southern California
Quarterly, 42
(1962): 338,348) said "he [S.J. Sedgwick] was never on the Union Pacific
payroll [as a member of the "photographic corps of the U.P.R.R."], unlike
Russell, a Brooklyn photographer named O.C. Smith, and one J.P. (sic) Silvis.8
[Endnote] 8. See construction records, Union Pacific Railroad, Omaha."
However, neither Don Snoddy, director of the Union Pacific Museum (Omaha);
Susan Williams, who did her dissertation on Russell (contact Oakland Museum,
Oakland, CA); Maury Klein, author of
Union Pacific, the Birth of a Railroad,
1862-1893 (Garden City: Doubleday, 1987); nor the author have found
any record of the U.P.'s employment of A.J. Russell or Silvis' membership
in Russell's photographic corps among the Union Pacific Railroad records
(now in the hands of the Nebraska State Historical Society).

38Newspaperman
John H. Beadle characterized Promontory as being "4900 feet above sea level,
though, theologically speaking, if we interpret scripture literally, it
ought to have been 49,000 below sea level; for it certainly was, for its
size, morally nearest to the infernal regions of any town on the [rail]road."
Barry B. Combs, Westward to Promontory (New York: Promontory Press,
1969), 68.

39William
H. Jackson, 2 Sept. 1869,
William H. Jackson Papers, New York Public
Library, New York, NY. This is the original journal entry. The entry was
later expanded in the typescript copy of his diary, done in preparation
for his autobiography. The entry was expanded further in his autobiography,
Time
Exposure (1940; rpt. Albuquerque, University of New Mexico, 1986),
where it reads, "Silvis, photographer [for the Union Pacific] [sic]
is here with tent doing portrait work. Spent some time with him helping
to get his bath and collodion in better condition." (183).

40The
experiences of William H. Jackson as set down in his autobiography, Time
Exposure, and his journals (held by the New York Public Library) offer
excellent examples of the trials and tribulations of the photographer in
the West.

41Ralph
C. Wilson, "J.B. Silvis: Union Pacific Photographer With Area Ties," The
Post-Gazette, 21 Jan. 1986. This article was based primarily on the
History
of the State of Nebraska (see Endnote 28) as is incorrect in many places.

42As
stated in endnote #37, no reference to the employment
of A.J. Russell, J.B. Silvis, or any other photographer has recently been
found in the remaining files of the Union Pacific Railroad. However, Maury
Klein, author of Union Pacific, the Birth of a Railroad, 1862-1893
(Garden City: Doubleday, 1987), has located a letter among the Union Pacific
files by Sidney Dillion in which he questions the need to employ a photographer.
Telephone conversation with the author.

48Gems
were small 7/8 inch by 1 inch, postage-stamp size, tintypes made with multiple
image cameras. Some were cut to fit lockets, cufflinks, and rings, even
garter clasps. Porcelains were made by floating a collodion image from
its glass base onto a chinaware surface, then sealing it with glazes and
heat treatments. George Gilbert,
Photography: The Early Years (New
York: Harper & Row, 1980), 72, 164.

50Marriage
Licenses, Certificate No. 10292, Cook County, IL (LDS microfilm #1030082).
This certificate is made out to John B. Silvis and M. Ella Allen (sic).
All other records indicate that Silvis was married to Alice Victoria (née
Allen). This discrepancy has not been resolved.

51Ralph
C. Wilson. From an article in the Waterloo Weekly Gazette (9 July
1881), which reported that, Mrs. Silvis was with her husband in Evanston,
Wyoming and ill with pneumonia.

52A
copy photograph of the "Olive Gang" (O48-13) is in the collection of the
Nebraska State Historical Society, Lincoln. Information taken from the
reverse. An account of the Mitchell and Ketchum affair appears in Pioneer
History of Custer County by Solomon D. Butcher (1901; rpt Broken Bow,
Purcelli's Inc., 1976, 43-62). A photograph of the charred remains of victims
appears in the book (56). While no photographer is credited with the picture,
based upon Silvis offer of "Views of the Hanging of Mitchell and Ketchum,"
it might be concluded that he took the photograph.

54Tom
Anderson, Stuhr Museum of the Prairie Pioneer. Letter to the author August
1991.

55According
to the 1900 Census (Twelfth Census of the United States, State of
Florida, County of Leon, Enumeration District 88, Sheet 16, line 16) Mrs.
Alice Silvis had given birth to 7 children. Only a daughter, Hazel, survived
to adulthood. The passing of one of these children was noted in the Nebraska
State Journal, 31 July 1878.

67Letters
of Testamentary and Administration, 2:207-8, Leon County Circuit Court,
Tallahassee, FL. The obituary of Silvis' mother, Catharine, indicated that
he died of heart disease. Daily Democrat, 18 Sept. 1900. There is
no death certificate on file for John Silvis. The State of Florida had
only begun requiring them in 1899, and Silvis may have slipped through
the cracks. Also, there is no Tallahasee newspaper for this time period
available on microform. In addition, Silvis’ gravesite has not been located.

Alice V. Silvis and her daughter, Hazel, sold the Silvis
farm on 9 April 1901 to Mrs. Annie Thompson of La Salle County, Illinois
for $3500 (Deeds [Leon County], 2:442, Tallahassee, FL). Alice is
last heard from on 26 March 1902 in Cook Co., Illinois, when she notarized
a document (deed) disposing of he mother-in-law’s estate (Deeds
[Clinton County], 66:655, Lockhaven, PA).

It has been difficult to follow Silvis’ daughter, Hazel.
In the sale of the Silvis farm she is presented as "Hazel Silvis Shumway"
(Deeds [Leon County], 2:442, Tallahassee, FL). On 24 September 1901
she is called the "wife of Ralph S. Wood" (Wills, B:321 (Affidavit of the
Widow), Leon County Circuit Court, Tallahassee, FL). Finally, in settlement
of her grandmother’s, Catherine Silvis, estate (Deeds [Clinton County],
66:654, Lockhaven, PA) she is presented as "Hazel Silvis Shumway Wood (Widow)
[sic] of Spartenburg [SC?]". Hazel notarized this deed in Douglas County,
Nebraska on 22 April 1902.

68In
1890 the Superintendent of the Census reported "the unsettled area has
been so broken up by isolated bodies of settlement that there can hardly
be said to be a frontier line." Ray A. Billington, Westward Expansion
(New York: The MacMillan Company, 1967), 753.